Tip of the Week #17 - Maximising Your Exhibition ROI

While exhibiting at a trade show can be a great way to increase brand awareness and gain new customers, putting together an exhibition stand usually requires a significant commitment of time, budget and resources. The last thing you'll want is to let all that effort go to waste, so you should take steps to maximise your return on investment (ROI). The following tips will help you maximise your ROI. 

Set clear, measurable goals

Establish the purpose of exhibiting and know what you want to achieve so you can determine the success of your exhibit post-show. Define your goals, and make them specific. Goals may include building brand awareness, growing sales leads or generating a specific number of sales leads. You'll also need to consider ways to measure success or ROI. Are you judging success by the number of leads, sales or visitors? You can set daily targets for each staff member on the stand and measure their performance. Communicate goals and objectives to your team clearly so they can work proactively towards them.

Location

One of the best ways to generate more leads and sales at an exhibition is to improve your stand's visibility. You can achieve this by booking a week-located stand space. Aim to get the best spot possible with your budget to increase booth traffic to your stand. It's also a good idea to book a space early to ensure you get your ideal spot, or a corner booth so you can get passing trade from more than one angle. 

Design a high-impact stand

Advances in building materials, lighting and graphics mean the only limits to designing and building an exhibition stand today are your imagination and resources. Make sure to use the same messages, designs, colours and graphics that are in your advertising and other marketing materials in the design of your booth. You don't want to send out mixed messages about your corporate identity and brand message! Keep your key messages brief, bold and relevant to your customer needs. Remember that if used effectively, graphics and signage can be used to communicate messages. 

To magnify your stand’s visibility, you can build your stand as high as exhibit organisers will allow or use overhead hanging banners. Use lighting to draw attention, and make sure your booth looks inviting to encourage traffic flow.